Vintage ‘blown away by talent’ as Kingston Animation Prize winners revealed

The winners of the Kingston Animation Prize have been revealed, with Vintage judges praising this year’s entries for their “imagination, vision and unusual approach”. 

The Kingston Animation Prize is run annually in partnership between Kingston University’s undergraduate animation course and Vintage. All the animations can be viewed on the Vintage YouTube channel.

This year students on Kingston University’s undergraduate animation course were tasked with creating a promotional animation for Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five of no more than one minute in length, drawing on the new jacket design by the publisher to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the initial publication. 

Tom Bates, James Dean, Noah Mauchly and Kat Thomas made up the winning team (pictured below), taking home £1,000, with their animation available to view

Vintage creative director Suzanne Dean said: “This animation showed great imagination in its storyboard. The way it moved from scene to scene, in a style reminiscent to a graphic novel, felt so fresh and original. The illustration was fabulous too.”

Second prize, worth £500, went to Maj Dorig, Rosie Gate, Bella McEvoy and Leonie Stelzner with Jade Duncan-Knight, Amber Lewis, Jayna Mathara and Heidy Zhuang awarded the £250 third prize. 

Ruth Waldram, Vintage brand director, said: “Vintage is always on the lookout for up and coming designers, animators and illustrators. Each year we are blown away by the creativity, talent and professionalism of the Kingston School of Art students and love partnering with them on this project. The importance of video on social media grows each year and these winning animations really bring our Vintage Classics edition of Slaughterhouse-Five alive.”